movie reviews of respect

The Aretha Franklin biopic, “Respect” ends with footage of the real Queen of Soul bringing down the house at the Kennedy Center Honors tribute to Carole King . Re plays the piano and sings “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” the composition King co-wrote. At the climax of this performance, Re tosses her fur coat to the stage floor with a true diva’s reckless abandon. Having a biopic close with its actual subject is an expected trope, perhaps the only one not viciously mocked by the superb parody “ Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story ,” and I usually find it to be an unnecessary swipe at the actor who’s spent the last two-plus hours trying to convince you they were that person. Any spell cast by the performance is suddenly broken by the arrival of the genuine article.

Here, the real Re shows up just after her portrayer, Jennifer Hudson , swaggers into that Los Angeles church to record Franklin’s biggest album, Amazing Grace . I remembered that moment from the 1972 documentary film of the concert, which sat unfinished for almost 50 years before its world premiere in 2018. In my review , I said that movie took me back to church. Watching Hudson sing the title song, decked in the same outfit and hairstyle, I felt similarly transcended. Casting a fellow belter from the church as one of the great products of a gospel upbringing is an incontrovertible requirement, especially if the actor is going to be singing her own songs. And Hudson doesn’t just sing; if I may use the vernacular, Jennifer Hudson sangs . But it’s in her recreation of that church entrance that she finally goes “full Aretha,” that is, we see everything we know and love about this icon. So when director Liesl Tommy switches to that Kennedy Center footage, it feels less like a usurping and more like the final scene in an origin story.

“Respect” reminded me of “ Lady Sings the Blues ,” the 1972 vehicle where Diana Ross portrayed Billie Holiday . As an analogy, this is to that film what Cynthia Erivo ’s Franklin miniseries “Genius: Aretha” is to last year’s “ The United States vs. Billie Holiday .” (Full disclosure: I disliked Erivo’s show intensely despite her being an incredible singer.) Like Ross’ film, this is a pure Hollywood treatment of its material that benefits from its shiny presentation as much as it benefits from a spectacular lead performance. I don’t think there’s a scene in Sidney J. Furie ’s movie where I didn’t know I was watching Diana Ross as Billie Holiday—and Hudson wisely follows Ross’ lead in not attempting an imitation of her character’s unmistakable voice. But, I felt the essence of Holiday being channeled onscreen.

Hudson does something similar here, and admittedly that may not be enough for some to save “Respect” from the genre trappings it adheres to. I tend to prefer interpretations like Anthony Hopkins in “ Nixon ” to the slavish imitation of something like Rami Malek in “ Bohemian Rhapsody .” But there is only one Aretha Franklin, and as a lifelong fan, I wasn’t sure I would be able to surrender here. Plus, the screenplay by Tracey Scott Wilson has some clunky and overfamiliar dramatic moments, and occasionally keeps her lead character’s pain at an arms’ length that weakens just how triumphant the real story is. Yet, Hudson is this film’s savior. She puts it on her shoulders like a wounded comrade, carries it off the battlefield to safety, and nurses it back to health. The tagline says “Jennifer Hudson is Aretha Franklin,” but in truth, it should say “Jennifer Hudson is this movie .”

Laying the groundwork for Hudson is Skye Dakota Turner , who plays the young Aretha in the early scenes of “Respect.” In her short screen time, she skillfully telegraphs both the joys and the trauma that will influence the adult version of her character. A born performer, she holds the audience in the palm of her hand when Re’s father, Rev. C.L. Franklin ( Forest Whitaker ) drags her out of bed to perform at a party filled with Black performer royalty like Dinah Washington ( Mary J. Blige in a short, effective cameo). “She’s only 10, but her voice is going on 30,” we’re told. Turner’s reactions to Audra McDonald (in an underwritten part as Franklin’s mother) make a later scene between Hudson and McDonald more powerful than anything in the script. Her performance appropriately haunts the film.

There’s a fair amount of ugliness in Franklin’s story—sexual assault, domestic abuse, alcoholism—and it’s to the film’s credit that it resists the temptation to treat these issues salaciously. But “Respect” never goes deeper than a surface-level exploration of how these traumas affected Franklin. They’re referred to as “the demons,” and kind of left at that. This makes it harder to understand something like her relationship with the abusive Ted White ( Marlon Wayans ), a man her father immediately tags as bad news because he correctly sees a reflection of his own egregious sins. Wayans is a better actor than films like “A Haunted House” indicate, but he’s not adept at balancing a charming exterior with a rotten core; someone like Larenz Tate would have brought that more effectively to this role. Like so many things, White is best summed up by an Aretha Franklin song lyric. In this case, it’s the succinctly brilliant opening lines of “I Never Loved A Man”: “You’re a no good heartbreaker, you’re a liar and you’re a cheat. And I don’t know why I let you do these things to me.”

That song features in one of those biopic tropes where the singer seems to pull a song out of thin air. Except here, it works because “Respect” uses it to frame Franklin’s improvisational and arrangement skills. The one moment we see her writing a song, it’s only the skeleton of her bluesy masterpiece “Dr. Feelgood.” Hudson captures the humble side of Franklin in the scene where she sings “Ain’t No Way,” a composition by her sister, Carolyn ( Hailey Kilgore ). “Show me how to sing your song,” she says, fully immersed in the collaboration. (This performance is also the closest Hudson comes to an approximation of the real thing.) There’s so much music here, being written, arranged, and performed onscreen, that “Respect” almost plays like a musical.

Though this is the lead actor’s show all the way, a few supporting performance stand out. Tituss Burgess seems like an odd choice for Rev. James Cleveland until you remember the mischievous twinkle in the late legend’s eye. And Marc Maron makes for a very good Jerry Wexler, but he didn’t endear himself to me as much as Curtis Armstrong ’s portrayal of fellow Atlantic Records alum Ahmet Ertegun in “ Ray .” Whitaker is pretty much a caricature, but he masterfully captures the pious, bougie hypocrisy that emanated from every preacher I’ve ever met in my life.

These actors keep things moving while you’re marking off your “Walk Hard” trope bingo cards. You won’t have enough spaces to yell “BINGO!” but no matter. Jennifer Hudson can sing and “Respect” is at its best when it lets her do just that. Whether it’s in a nightgown or in the full, glorious regalia Aretha Franklin adorned in her concert appearances, Hudson performs with the same tireless intensity Re was known for throughout her career. It’s a damn good performance and this is a damn entertaining movie. It’s going to be a hit, and like many a flawed but beloved classic, it’s gonna play on cable for decades.

Now playing in theaters.

Odie Henderson

Odie “Odienator” Henderson has spent over 33 years working in Information Technology. He runs the blogs Big Media Vandalism and Tales of Odienary Madness. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin
Forest Whitaker as C. L. Franklin
Marlon Wayans as Ted White
Audra McDonald as Barbara Franklin
Mary J. Blige as Dinah Washington
Marc Maron as Jerry Wexler
Tituss Burgess as Reverend Dr. James Cleveland
Tate Donovan as John Hammond
Avril Beukes

Writer (story by)

Callie Khouri
Tracey Scott Wilson

Cinematographer

Kramer Morgenthau
Kris Bowers
Liesl Tommy

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Aretha Franklin Biopic Pays Proper 'Respect' To The Queen Of Soul

Justin Chang

Jennifer Hudson doesn't try to mimic Aretha Franklin so much as channel her spirit. Franklin was heavily involved in the development of Respect up until her death in 2018, and she reportedly handpicked Hudson to star in it. United Artists hide caption

The average musical biopic — and most of them are pretty average — follows a predictable arc: the troubled childhood marked by flashes of genius; the record deals and hit album montages; the marriages torn apart by affairs, addiction and the ravages of fame. Even when these clichés are drawn from real life, it's disappointing to see great artists reduced to formulas.

Aretha Franklin was one of our greatest artists, and Respect , the new movie about her early years, doesn't entirely avoid those biopic conventions. But there's real intelligence and feeling in it all the same.

Music Interviews

Aretha franklin: the 'fresh air' interview.

This is the first feature from director Liesl Tommy and screenwriter Tracey Scott Wilson, both of whom have worked for many years in theater and television, and they seem to know that even well-worn notes can sound newly resonant in the right hands. That's one of the lessons of Franklin's own career: Respect of course draws its title from an Otis Redding song that Franklin brilliantly made her own.

Like Diana Ross as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues — or more recently, Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland in Judy — star Jennifer Hudson doesn't try to mimic her real-life subject so much as channel her spirit. The illusion doesn't always take hold; notably, the actor seems less evocative of Franklin than Cynthia Erivo was in the recent miniseries Genius: Aretha . But Hudson is a vocal powerhouse, and her musical performances are frequently electrifying in what's easily her most significant role since her Oscar-winning debut 15 years ago in Dreamgirls .

Aretha Franklin, The 'Queen Of Soul,' Dies At 76

Hudson and the filmmakers mean to show us a still-unformed Aretha, who doesn't yet possess the strong artistic identity and business savvy that will define her reign as the Queen of Soul. We first meet her in 1952 Detroit as a 10-year-old nicely played by Skye Dakota Turner, already wowing churches and house parties with her singing talent. Forest Whitaker is her father, the influential Baptist minister and civil rights activist C.L. Franklin, who exercises a heavy hand over his daughter's future music career. But Aretha is even more profoundly shaped by her mother, the gospel singer Barbara Franklin, warmly played by Audra McDonald . Barbara dies soon after we meet her, but not before warning the young Aretha never to let her father or any other man exploit her talent, which is a gift from God.

Respect has a good grasp of the tightly interwoven forces — family, religion, activism and music — that shaped Aretha and sometimes threatened to tear her apart. Aretha tries to flee her father's control by marrying Ted White, played by Marlon Wayans, who becomes her manager. But it soon becomes clear that she's merely exchanged one domineering man for another. Meanwhile, her musical versatility — there's nothing she can't sing — ironically proves something of an obstacle at first. She's not certain what kind of artist she wants to be.

Music Lists

Aretha franklin: in memoriam playlist.

That changes when she signs with Atlantic Records and joins forces with the legendary producer Jerry Wexler — a terrific Marc Maron — who in 1966 sends her to record with a scrappy but first-rate band in Muscle Shoals, Ala. Respect surges to life in these sequences: It's a thrill to watch the often soft-spoken, deferential Aretha seize control of her recording sessions, tweaking the arrangement on her first big hit, "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)," and building a strong rapport with her collaborators. We recognize her brilliance as not just a singer but also an impromptu songwriter.

By the time Aretha is singing immortal tunes like "(You Make Me Feel like a) Natural Woman," she's also mustered the courage to leave her abusive husband. From there, the movie becomes more uneven and overwrought, as Aretha's alcoholism threatens to torpedo her career and family life.

Some of these scenes feel rushed, and they expose other cracks in the storytelling: We spend a lot of time with Aretha's sisters, both also singers, but her four sons are only partly glimpsed. The movie is also vague in its sense of Aretha as a political figure, apart from brief scenes in which we see her singing at the funeral of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and defending Angela Davis after her arrest.

The road is bumpy, but the film's final destination is moving. Respect climaxes with perhaps Franklin's finest achievement, her landmark 1972 album, Amazing Grace, presented here as not just her return to her gospel roots but also her recommitment to God. It's a lovely sequence that made me want to revisit the electrifying documentary Amazing Grace , which was filmed during those recording sessions, and which is easily the greatest Aretha Franklin movie ever. As even decent musical biopics remind us, there ain't nothing like the real thing.

aretha franklin

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Respect Reviews

Draping the film in a nostalgic haze, [director Liesl] Tommy suggests a lack of clarity during these early years as Aretha stumbles toward freedom, driven by a stirring soundtrack of hit after hit, and powered by [Hudson's] performance.

Full Review | Jul 29, 2024

While Jennifer Hudson is an incredible performer, I was worried that this would feel too formulaic to be enjoyable. I came out blown away and incredibly emotionally moved...

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 19, 2023

Sadly, this particular example of a biopic does not find itself possessing an extraordinary execution to make it a singularly accomplished effort.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jun 5, 2022

The portrait of the singer does not risk too much, tiptoes through the edges of her biography and conforms to a fairly conventional script that, none the less, has a good rhythm... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 19, 2022

Yes, it’ll make you depressed about the life Franklin lived. But, it’ll also give you a more profound love for the Queen of Soul, who managed to shine above all of the horrors and create an enduring legacy that promotes hope and perseverance.

Full Review | May 13, 2022

It is Jennifer Hudson's treatment of Aretha Franklin's songs that sparkles here.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Mar 16, 2022

Told with love, featuring memorable performances and a rocking soundtrack, we came away feeling inspired and with a newfoundahemrespect for Ms. Franklin.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 13, 2022

Embodying a figure as formidable as Franklin is no easy task, but Hudson is equal to it. Her musical talents have been evident since her award-winning breakthrough in 2007s Dreamgirls, but to play such a legend takes a special kind of performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 3, 2022

The film doesnt stray too far from the standard collection of musician biopic clichs, but director Liesl Tommy clearly has a feel for the genre and the key scenes work like gangbusters.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 25, 2022

Watching Respect, the viewer can sense the production's overriding desire for Oscars.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 12, 2022

There are the workings of a much stronger film in this, so one hopes that Respect won't be the final word on the subject, but in the interim, it gives Hudson a chance to portray her -- warts and all -- the way she wanted to be seen.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 14, 2022

...succeeds where many biopics have failed in capturing the human story behind the musical legend, with Hudson the happy centre of a lavish, sincere production....

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 13, 2022

The film touches upon the major moments of Franklin's life, but does not coalesce into a fulfilling narrative.

Full Review | Dec 17, 2021

This is not a bad film, but certainly it is the film we are left with having not been given a particularly good one.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 28, 2021

It's an entertaining film with plenty of great music, but it unfolds in an expected and unsurprising manner.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 13, 2021

All in all, Respect finds its heart when Jennifer Hudson channels the riveting artistry of the Queen of Soul. The actress reminds us how a great singer can shake our emotional foundation and lift the spirit.

Full Review | Nov 13, 2021

For all of the film's zig-zagging, the music plays the most memorable role. And nothing can take that away from Miss Franklin, who tried to live life on her terms, and was a force until the end.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Oct 23, 2021

Oscar winner Hudson brings the bombast, pathos and heavenly vocal chops in a winning powerhouse performance. It is a pity her star vehicle is hardly a showstopper and lacks soul.

Full Review | Oct 14, 2021

The film soars whenever the music takes over, as it does for large chunks of the action. But the backstage story is less exhilarating. Franklin had a life as big as her personality.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 13, 2021

Jennifer Hudson transforms into the queen of soul and sings her absolute heart out in a dazzling performance that's sometimes hard to watch.

Full Review | Original Score: 8 | Oct 9, 2021

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‘Respect’ Review: Aretha Franklin Is Latest Musical Genius to Get a Rote Biopic About Her Remarkable Life

Kate erbland, editorial director.

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When Liesl Tommy’s Aretha Franklin biopic “ Respect ” opens, Aretha is still just a kid, hoping to please her dad (the formidable minister C.L. Franklin, played here by a well-cast Forest Whitaker) with her out-of-this-world pipes. Aretha (played as a child by Skye Dakota Turner) gets her wish: her high-flying dad rouses her from sleep to come downstairs and share her gift with a packed house of carousing pals. It’s a strong opening to an otherwise rote biopic about a singular talent, one that plunges us immediately into Aretha’s world and skills, while also making clear just how little control she has over all of it. And while young “Ree-Ree” delights in sharing her abilities with a house full of awestruck adults, the sense that she’s just a pawn for others’ desires is one that will haunt Aretha — and her career — throughout Tommy’s film (until, of course, she busts loose in perfectly prescribed cinematic fashion).

As the party spins out, Dinah Washington (a remarkable Mary J. Blige, underused here), already jealous and likely knowing that the pint-sized crooner was coming for her crown, notes that while Aretha may be a kid, she’s got “a voice going on 30.” Turner, a talented singer in her own right and here making her onscreen debut, plays Aretha with believable maturity and gravitas. The girl has skills , exhibiting real showmanship and passion, hallmarks of Franklin’s work that are respectfully rendered here. But young Aretha’s life isn’t all sunshine and singing, and after a one-two punch of horrific personal traumas, she temporarily stops speaking. And while she does eventually start talking (and singing) again, the rest of the film is just as invested in what happens when the so-called “demon” takes hold of her as it is in charting her rise to eventual “Queen of Soul” levels.

Mostly, “Respect” serves to remind how little of Franklin’s life was really hers , at least until she grabbed it with both hands (truly, the film is called “Respect” for many, many reasons). Even happy moments — like when C.L. announces the pair are traveling to New York City to meet with record producers — are tinged with confusion. Who exactly made that choice? And what does it mean for Aretha? No one cares to ask, but the undercurrent of discomfort it inspires is very real. Plot movements like that, seemingly awkward on their face, but later proving to speak to the film’s themes, run rampant throughout the film. Not all of them work.

Many of Tommy’s choices vacillate between inventive and baffling, like the decision to have Hudson — who had just turned 37 when filming began on the project — play Aretha from age 17 and up. The first appearance of Hudson, care of a swirling tracking shot that starts on young Turner singing, glides through her daddy’s packed church, only to land back on Hudson, now in the role, is jarring. Turner was just 10 at the time of shooting, playing Franklin from age 10 to 12, and to suddenly turn her into Hudson, a grown woman, rankles. But perhaps that’s the point: teenage Aretha, still a child and one who had been through so much, was suddenly expected to be a woman, or at least to present as one. The intent is unclear, and so is the execution, but at least it means we’re treated to Hudson slipping into Franklin’s life for entire decades.

And those decades fly by, care of fake archival footage, shortcut dramatizations (Aretha gets drunk, and suddenly the sound is gone; Aretha can’t remember something, and the whole world goes fuzzy), and a dizzying array of intertitles meant to remind everyone of times and places. None of it feels very rooted, but Hudson tries her hardest to keep things steady.

As is too often the case with biopics of remarkable people, the film’s script is peppered with hammy lines that would seem more comfortable embroidered on a pillow, rather than spoken aloud. “Your daddy doesn’t own your voice,” young Aretha is told. Later, a well-meaning family friend promises “music will save your life.” In early adulthood, a colleague advises that she “finds the song that suits you !” We get it. Aretha did, too, and the film makes it plain just how very much she did want to succeed. Soon enough, she’s nine albums in, and without a bonafide hit. What she does have — a bad relationship with her dad, an abusive one with her first husband Ted White (Marlon Wayans, in one of the best performances of his career), and a panache for acting out — isn’t getting her anywhere.

Enter: Marc Maron? Continuing his unlikely act as Hollywood’s go-to music producer dude (he trod similar territory in the recent off-brand David Bowie film, “Stardust”), Maron stars as the brilliant Jerry Wexler, who helped Franklin find her real voice. When Aretha, Ted, Jerry, and company alight to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where a pack of talented white dudes help unlock what would become Aretha’s signature sound, “Respect” finally comes to life — just like Aretha. Hudson opens up, the songs start flowing, and the window into what made Franklin just so special temporarily goes wide. Soon enough, however, it’s shut up again.

Part of that is surely due to the expansive nature of the film, which still concludes in the late ’70s, leaving open long stretches of Aretha’s life wholly uncovered, save for a handful of post-scripts that only offer up the highlights of her career before her death in 2018. Even with a script from Tracey Scott Wilson and Callie Khouri that gamely attempts to condense the early part of Franklin’s professional career, “Respect” feels far too narrow, despite the (paradoxical) appeal of sequences that are allowed to simply breathe. Franklin’s time with the Muscle Shoals crew could make for its own film, and it’s easily the best bit of this one, but the demands of commercial biopic filmmaking don’t embrace that sort of framing. It’s always time to move on to the next chapter, even if the last one hasn’t satisfyingly closed.

The film also fails to touch upon some of the more painful headlines and traumas that besieged Franklin during her life and career, including her decades-long battle with her weight and a deeper exploration of her parents’ fraught relationship, while leaning into other elements that have only gotten attention in recent years, like the abuse she suffered as a child that resulted in the births of her first two children. And yet “Respect” does make the space to include some of Franklin’s work with the civil rights movement, including sequences that see her all but begging family friend Martin Luther King Jr. (Gilbert Glenn Brown, exhibiting appropriate charisma) to let her more actively participate in his work. So much of “Respect” is about Aretha wanting more — and so desiring to work for it — and it’s disheartening that this well-meaning exploration of her legacy seems doomed to inspire that same hunger in its audience.

An MGM release, “Respect” will be released in theaters on Friday, August 13.

As new movies open in theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic, IndieWire will continue to review them whenever possible. We encourage readers to follow the safety precautions provided by CDC and health authorities. Additionally, our coverage will provide alternative viewing options whenever they are available.

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Review: ‘Respect’ is an enjoyable ode to Aretha Franklin, biopic clichés and all

Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin sings into a microphone in the movie "Respect."

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There are moments when “Respect,” an uneven, prosaic but affecting new movie starring Jennifer Hudson as a young Aretha Franklin, comes close to pinpointing something true and revealing about its subject’s art. That may sound like faint praise, but it’s closer than many musician biopics get. Watch enough and their clichés start to sound like greatest hits: the troubled childhood marked by flashes of genius; the record deals and album cover montages; the marriages torn asunder by addiction, abuse and the ravages of fame. The music becomes a soundtrack at best and an afterthought at worst, something to paper over the gaps between traumas and milestones.

“Respect,” glossily produced, skillfully performed and notably developed by Franklin herself before her death in 2018 , doesn’t entirely avoid these traps. But as directed by Liesl Tommy, making a solid feature debut, it rarely stumbles right into them. The script, by playwright and TV writer Tracey Scott Wilson, may be a thinner, more flattering account than this year’s unauthorized miniseries “Genius: Aretha,” but it also makes a virtue of some of its conventions, investing well-worn notes with fresh reserves of emotion. That’s fitting, insofar as part of Franklin’s brilliance lay in her ability to riff on well-loved standards; her 1972 gospel album, “Amazing Grace,” the production of which draws the story to a close, is a transcendent example. The song that gives the movie its title is another.

Three Black women sit together at a piano.

“That’s Otis Redding’s song,” someone protests in the early stages of Aretha’s soon-to-be-definitive reworking. (“Otis who?” comes the eventual rejoinder.) The unveiling of that 1967 all-timer provides a rousing mid-movie payoff that Hudson, whom Franklin personally selected for the role , tears into with unsurprising aplomb. But in some ways, the songwriting scene that precedes it is even more enjoyable: Aretha is up late with her sisters, Carolyn (Hailey Kilgore) and Erma (Saycon Sengbloh), teasing out the beats and flourishes that will make this version so memorable, including the infectious chorus of “Ree, Ree, Ree, Ree” — a Ree-petition derived from Aretha’s childhood nickname.

Did it really happen that way? Did Aretha’s caddish first husband and manager, Ted White (played here by a terrific Marlon Wayans), really come storming out of the bedroom, grumbling about the lateness of the hour? Who knows. Like a lot of scenes in Wilson’s script (drawn from a story she’s credited with alongside Callie Khouri), it feels neatly constructed to reinforce bedrock themes. It reminds us that while Franklin’s spellbinding talent was nurtured by her family’s collaborative musicianship, there were a lot of men who tried to control that talent, the very men who most needed to hear “Respect” and its mighty blast of defiance.

They included Aretha’s influential father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin (an imposing Forest Whitaker), a pillar of the Black church in 1950s Detroit and an embodiment of the tightly interwoven forces — family, religion, activism, music — that will shape Aretha and nearly tear her apart. In the opening scene, he trots out his extraordinarily talented 10-year-old daughter (a very good Skye Dakota Turner) to sing and wow the crowd at one of his house parties. But it’s Aretha’s New York-based mother, the gospel singer Barbara Siggers Franklin (Audra McDonald), who leaves the deeper impression, warning her not to let her father or anyone else exploit her gift — and a gift it is, to be given back to God and God alone.

Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin and Forest Whitaker as her father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, in the movie "Respect."

The rest of the movie will chart Aretha’s flight from that core spiritual truth and her overdue, triumphant return to it. Bouncing from Detroit to Birmingham, Ala., to New York City and beyond, it’s a prodigal journey paved with chart-topping highs and soul-crushing lows, starting with Barbara’s untimely death, which sends the young Aretha into silence for weeks. She finds her voice again at her father’s pulpit, morphing in one sequence from the sweet-voiced Turner into the full-throated Hudson as the camera swirls ecstatically around her. (The widescreen cinematography is by Kramer Morgenthau.)

Finding her voice as an artist, however, will prove more difficult. And Hudson’s tricky, impressive, fitfully persuasive performance seems to embody that difficulty almost too well. It’s not just that Hudson, even when sporting a ’60s updo and clad in Clint Ramos’ radiant costumes, is less physically evocative of Franklin than, say, Cynthia Erivo was in “Genius: Aretha.” Imitation can be the sincerest form of flattening, and like Diana Ross in “Lady Sings the Blues” (or, more recently, Renée Zellweger in “Judy” ), Hudson wisely pursues emotional truth over exacting mimicry. And her vocals are unsurprisingly superb; while you can sometimes hear her strain for the upper register that Franklin conquered so effortlessly, her singing is as electric and fully felt here as in “Dreamgirls,” the movie that won her an Oscar 15 years ago.

Indeed, as in “Dreamgirls,” Hudson seems to express her character’s feelings more vividly in song than in dialogue — hardly a fatal flaw in a musical, though it does leave a nagging emotional vagueness at the heart of some of the more straightforward dramatic scenes. That’s partly by design: If the aim is to capture the spirit rather than the letter of Franklin’s immense presence, that spirit in “Respect” is still unformed. The Aretha we see is calculating, hesitant and sometimes even deferential, not yet possessed of the strong artistic identity and music-industry savvy that would define her reign as the Queen of Soul.

Two men stand behind a woman seated at a piano and singing.

Asked what kind of music she wants to sing, Aretha confesses, “I want hits. I just want hits.” So do the men who help and hinder her, starting with her father, who orchestrates her entry into the biz and curtails her participation in the protests led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Gilbert Glenn Brown), a close family friend. Aretha escapes her father’s clutches by marrying the wheeling-and-dealing Ted, but he turns out to be just as domineering and considerably more abusive. A deal with Columbia Records, where she works with producer John Hammond (Tate Donovan), will pull Aretha in several directions, resulting in a string of records with little clear sense of musical purpose.

One of the slyer insights of “Respect” is that for a while, Franklin’s great versatility — her ability to sing anything and everything — is also an obstacle, one that she won’t surmount until she teams with Atlantic Records and the legendary producer Jerry Wexler (a sly, affectionate turn by Marc Maron). He sends Aretha to record with a scrappy all-white band in Muscle Shoals, Ala., a decision that Ted nearly derails in scenes marked by a dangerous mix of racial tensions and clashing male egos. But the creative and commercial payoffs are undeniable. Hudson’s soft-spoken Aretha surges to life — and so does the movie — during the recording sessions, whether she’s tweaking the arrangement on her first big hit, “I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)” or forging an unexpected camaraderie with the Muscle Shoals crew.

In these scenes, Hudson captures something of Aretha’s brilliance as not only a singer but also a songwriter, someone whose collaborative instincts and deep musical knowledge reinforce every line, beat and trilling glissando. There’s more feeling, more insight into who she is in these performances — which include “Ain’t No Way,” “(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman” and a sadly truncated “I Say a Little Prayer” — than in the rote, lurching scenes of domestic discord that eventually set in, as Aretha’s marriage to Ted disintegrates and her mounting struggles with alcohol take centerstage.

Jennifer Hudson and Mary J. Blige in a dressing room in the movie "Respect."

“Respect” is less than persuasive as an addiction drama and vague in its sense of Franklin as a political figure, some nods to her performance at Dr. King’s funeral and her support for Angela Davis aside. But there’s an admirable discretion in the way Tommy and Wilson handle certain other aspects of their heroine’s trauma: Rather than rubbing the camera in her experiences of physical and sexual abuse, they reveal those experiences in increments, using staccato flashbacks that suggest the return of repressed memories — or, as they’re referred to here, her “demons.”

Movingly, “Respect” also acknowledges her angels. Those guardians take many forms, some of them prominently featured in the movie’s splendid ensemble: McDonald’s Barbara is one of them, as is another legend, Dinah Washington (Mary J. Blige), who gives Aretha the best tough-love pep talk imaginable. And then there’s her recommitment to gospel and God with “Amazing Grace,” a landmark that was reconsecrated a few years ago with the release of the long-buried documentary of the same title. That film remains by no small margin the greatest Aretha Franklin movie ever, and it throws this one’s achievements and limitations into sharp relief. “Respect” is fine, fitfully rousing, even respectable. And sometimes, it’s something more.

'Respect'

Rating: PG-13, for mature thematic content; strong language including racial epithets, violence and suggestive material; and smoking Running time: 2 hours, 24 minutes Playing: Starts Aug. 13 in general release

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‘respect’ spells out an earnest aretha franklin tribute as a showcase for jennifer hudson.

Earnest to a fault, “Respect” spells out a handsome tribute to Aretha Franklin, with Jennifer Hudson and her peerless singing pipes as its formidable anchor. Yet this biography never fully sparks to life, as the Queen of Soul fights in episodic fashion to establish and later protect her musical legacy from the domineering men in her life.

Although Franklin’s family spoke out against “Genius: Aretha,” a National Geographic miniseries that garnered a well-deserved Emmy nomination for star Cynthia Erivo, the two projects actually complement each other. “Genius’” main advantage comes from the latitude to flesh out Franklin’s painful youth, from being sexually victimized to losing her mother, while “Respect” – even at nearly 2 ½ hours – races through those moments, which still loom large in the story.

Cynthia Erivo in 'Genius: Aretha' (National Geographic/Richard DuCree)

The movie begins with the 10-year-old Aretha being pulled out of bed by her father, pastor C.L. Franklin (Forest Whitaker), to entertain at a party, singling her out as a prodigy. Yet that gift parallels with a life filled with hardship, which doesn’t get any easier when the 20-ish Aretha lands a record contract, with her dad describing her as “a Black Judy Garland.”

Crooning ballads, however, didn’t capitalize on her talents, and before long dad’s counsel was shunted aside by Aretha’s relationship and marriage to Ted White (Marlon Wayans, effective in a dramatic turn), a slick hustler whose temper and jealousy go hand in hand with his conviction that he knows what’s best for his wife’s career.

Related article Jennifer Hudson thinks she knows why Aretha Franklin chose her for 'Respect'

It’s around then that “Respect” earns its biggest dollops of it, presenting the recording sessions that birthed some of Franklin’s signature hits. Not only do those sequences give Hudson an opportunity to shine, but they conjure an appreciation for Aretha’s artistry as seen through the eyes of the musicians accompanying her, always a challenge with this sort of biographical tale.

Still, the movie’s structure – directed by Liesl Tommy from Tracey Scott Wilson’s screenplay – feels as if it somewhat arbitrarily bounces from one moment to the next over what amounts to this pivotal 20-year span.

That stretch includes Franklin’s involvement in the civil-rights movement and friendship with Martin Luther King Jr. (Gilbert Glenn Brown), but it also leaves lots of material on the cutting-room floor, as evidenced by a closing clip and lengthy crawl that details what a force the Queen remained late into her life.

To its credit “Respect” depicts Franklin’s bouts with alcohol and snappishness toward those close to her, including her sisters, creating a flawed, three-dimensional character. The supporting cast also includes Marc Maron as producer Jerry Wexler, who respected his star enough to accede to her creative demands, though seldom without a good deal of exasperation and complaining.

The daunting task of translating the lives of musical icons to film has a compensatory track record of being rewarded with Oscar nominations, with “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Judy” among recent examples.

Having been anointed by Franklin herself to portray her, Hudson earns her place in that company. Yet in terms of a movie that completely does right by its star and regal subject, that little prayer hasn’t been answered.

“Respect” premieres Aug. 13 in US theaters. It’s rated PG-13.

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Review: As Aretha Franklin, a soulful Jennifer Hudson keeps 'Respect' from hitting the wrong note

Give her the proper respect: Jennifer Hudson stuns with her performance singing and inhabiting the life of musical royalty, even if the new Aretha Franklin biopic leans conventionally commonplace.

Rather than giving the Queen of Soul the cradle-to-grave treatment, “Respect” (★★½ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters and on video-on-demand platforms) focuses on Franklin’s life over a formative 20-year span, from young Aretha (Skye Dakota Turner) having to deal with trauma and tragedy in her Detroit childhood circa 1952 to the grown-up singer (Hudson) navigating her own personal demons while rocketing to global stardom in the 1960s and early ‘70s.

Directed by Liesl Tommy, the drama sparkles whenever Hudson belts out a tune, from “Think” to “Amazing Grace” to the movie's quintessential title track, but every other scene in the 2½-half-hour film just seems like a way to bide time until she sings again. So as a concert film of sorts it works – as a movie it could be a lot better.

‘Respect’: Jennifer Hudson heads to Detroit to watch biopic with Aretha Franklin's family

As a 10-year-old vocal prodigy, Aretha is woken up by her Baptist minister dad C.L. (Forest Whitaker) to entertain guests at his late-night parties. Infidelity and abuse led to his parents’ breakup, and Aretha’s visits with her mom also involve music: At the piano, Barbara Franklin (Audra McDonald) tells her daughter, “If you ever don’t want to sing, don’t.” Barbara’s unexpected death – and a sense of growing independence she seeds in Aretha – creates friction between Aretha and her father, a conflict that continues into adulthood as Aretha embarks on her music career and struggles to find not only a hit song but also her own musical identity.

Aretha later falls under the sway of Ted White (Marlon Wayans), her violent and jealous husband/manager, though finds allies such as music producer Jerry Wexler (Marc Maron). The quest for dignity and respect Aretha’s mom instilled in her begins to change her musical fortunes as she takes more ownership of her songs – Aretha figuring out her famous arrangement of Otis Redding’s “Respect” with her sisters (Saycon Sengbloh and Hailey Kilgore) is a tender moment. However, the movie also tackles her drinking, her religion and her history with the civil rights moment. "You have to disturb the peace when you can't get peace,” Aretha says when standing up for arrested activist Angela Davis.

'Respect' trailer: See Jennifer Hudson take on powerful voice of Aretha Franklin

While Tracey Scott Wilson’s screenplay does tie together themes, “Respect” touches on many aspects of her life, so it often loses focus and sticks to its timeline without much nuance. The movie doesn’t shy away from the dark points but doesn’t expand on them either – one scene hints to sexual abuse as a child, and is subtly referenced later, though is never really broached fully.

One thing that absolutely works, though, is Hudson, because it's hard to fathom anyone else playing Aretha this well. The Oscar winner's powerful singing is no surprise to anyone paying a modicum of attention to pop culture – or who watched “American Idol” or “Dreamgirls” – but she’s next-level terrific at capturing both the pain and the pride of Franklin’s songbook.

Tommy has surrounded her with a number of fabulous double threats: Turner sounds phenomenal as kid Aretha, McDonald and Mary J. Blige (as blues legend Dinah Washington) aren’t in the movie nearly enough, and Tituss Burgess has a splendid supporting role as James Cleveland, the gospel icon key in bringing Aretha back to her church roots.

Hudson was handpicked by Franklin to play her in a movie, so add that to the late Queen of Soul’s long list of successes. But similar to other recent musical biopic vehicles like “Judy” and “ The United States vs. Billie Holiday ,” “Respect” never reaches the greatness of its shining star.

‘Respect’ Review: Jennifer Hudson Gives Flattering Yet Flat Aretha Franklin Portrait

The 'Dreamgirls' star looks and sounds great in the role, but this overly respectful biopic steers clear of revealing the traumas that shaped the soul legend.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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From age 10 till 30, Aretha Franklin sure could sing, but she hadn’t yet found her voice. At least, that’s the take served up in “ Respect ,” a solid if somewhat conventional feature directing debut for Broadway helmer Liesl Tommy which flatters Franklin in practically every way, beginning with the casting of Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson as the First Lady of Soul’s younger self. (It was Franklin’s personal wish that the “Dreamgirls” sensation portray her on-screen, and Franklin nearly always got what she wanted.) That’s not to say that “Respect” is pure hagiography, even if the title makes clear that Tommy intends for audiences to emerge with a deeper appreciation of the personal struggles — as well as the triumphs — that shaped Franklin’s signature sound.

Pandemic delays pushed “Respect” from the 2020 release calendar to Aug. 13, giving National Geographic’s Cynthia Erivo-starring, Aretha-focused season of “Genius” a chance to reach (small) screens first, despite objections from the Franklin family to some of the series’ tawdrier bits. Still, both projects are essentially committed to celebrating Aretha Franklin’s accomplishments, as musician, Black woman and civil rights advocate, and though “Respect” can feel a little soft in the drama department, it delivers the added pleasure of hearing Hudson re-create Franklin’s key songs, from the early jazz standards she covered for Columbia to her reinvention of the Otis Redding single that lends the film its name.

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“Respect” begins and ends with Aretha singing in church. While her performing career would continue for nearly half a century after credits roll, the movie makes the case that Franklin’s musical identity was rooted in her religious upbringing — as a descendant of Southern sharecroppers and daughter of circuit preacher C.L. Franklin (Forest Whitaker) — and that her success, her purpose and her voice all crystallized with the recording of 1972’s “Amazing Grace” gospel album.

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It’s not as if Franklin’s life suddenly simplified after the making of “Amazing Grace,” which was filmed by director Sydney Pollack for a documentary whose release Franklin blocked for decades, remaining unseen by the public until after her death in 2018. Still, there’s a certain poetry in suggesting that the unconventional album (which went on to be her most successful) was Aretha’s answer to that most tired of music biopic clichés: the way that, in everything from “Walk the Line” to “Rocketman,” acclaim sweeps super-talents up and up — and eventually astray — until they crash at a substance abuse-induced rock bottom.

While “Respect” is burdened by some of those tropes, the screenplay by Tracey Scott Wilson (“Fosse/Verdon”) doesn’t try to manufacture drama from Aretha’s drinking. Nor does it turn away from that reality, as when she goes onstage soused and falls off it in Columbus, Ohio. The film reveals that Aretha has been led to believe there is a “demon” lurking in her personality. Sure, she can be difficult at times, but “Respect” tries to contextualize everything she’s dealing with (albeit in an oblique way that sometimes reads as too tasteful for its own good).

Despite a financially comfortable upbringing, Franklin’s childhood was not without challenges: She gave birth to her first son at age 12 (conveyed via flashback), and her over-protective father had perhaps too strong a hand in shaping her career and life choices. Early in the film, he invites young Aretha (played by Skye Dakota Turner) up to the pulpit to sing, and the camera does a 360-degree tour of the church before returning to find Hudson now standing in her place. But Hudson continues to channel an almost girlish hesitancy around Aretha’s father and her first husband, Ted White (Marlon Wayans).

The song “Respect” may be an all-time-great empowerment anthem, but the Aretha who sings it here hasn’t yet learned to live by its words. (Or maybe she has, as Franklin was always coy about what the choir-like “Sock it to me” refrain was supposed to mean.) Hudson’s Aretha seems too intimidated to speak up much of the time, letting Ted — who elbowed C.L. out of the way as manager, and balled his fists whenever he got angry — make the decisions.

After nine albums minus any big hits, Aretha switched labels to Atlantic, taking the advice of producer Jerry Wexler (Marc Maron) to record in Muscle Shoals, Ala. There, she walked into a room of white men and cut “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You,” embracing the soul sound that would define the rest of her career.

The movie doesn’t make too much of the racial politics of the time, which played a greater role in Lee Daniels’ recent (and relatively unhinged) “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” biopic, but then, Franklin was a different kind of singer. For one, she came from money. Her father was well-connected, and she counted Martin Luther King Jr., Sam Cooke and Dinah Washington among a wide circle of family friends (as Dinah, a barely-seen Mary J. Blige delivers the film’s campiest line, overturning a table at one of Aretha’s shows: “Bitch, don’t ever sing the queen’s songs when the queen is in front of you!”). Instead of writing controversial protest songs, Franklin stuck to pop — and yet, she used her position to advocate for Black rights, performing at fundraisers and other events for King practically anytime he asked.

Eventually, Ted’s outbursts become too much for Aretha, and she leaves him. The singer may have covered her share of spiritual music, but “Respect” doesn’t pretend that its subject was strictly pious. As depicted, Aretha follows her passions, just one more way in which this remarkable woman seems to know what she wants. It’s not until quite late in the film — when Aretha tells Jerry that she wants to do “Amazing Grace” — that she finally speaks with the same authority fans have long responded to in her music.

In a sense, she’s had a lifetime of singing experience by this point, but is only just learning to assert herself behind the scenes, and here we see the benefit of having the Jennifer Hudson of today (as opposed to the less self-assured actor-singer of 15 years ago) in the role. Aretha Franklin was as important a female vocalist as America ever produced, and while “Respect” affords a glimpse of the vulnerable, uncertain woman she once was, audiences fully expect her to appear iconic. Hudson has the pipes as well as the presence, and that, plus the film’s two-and-a-half-hour running time, make the film feel more definitive than it is.

Reviewed at Wilshire Screening Room, Los Angeles, Aug. 4, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 145 MIN.

Production: A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures release and presentation, in associtaion with Bron Creative, One Community of a Chislehurst Entertainment, Harvey Mason Media, Glickmania Entertainment production. Producers: Harvey Mason Jr., Scott Bernstein, Jonathan Glickman, Stacey Sher. Executive producers: Jennifer Hudson, Liesl Tommy, Sue-Baden Powell, Aaron L. Gilbert, Jason Cloth.
Crew: Director: Liesl Tommy. Screenplay: Tracey Scott Wilson. Camera: Kramer Morgenthau. Editor: Avril Beukes. Music: Kris Bowers.
With: Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Marc Maron, Tituss Burgess, Mary J. Blige.

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Respect review: Jennifer Hudson stars in lackluster Aretha Franklin biopic

Liesl Tommy's dutiful account of the Queen of Soul's career doesn't measure up to its subject.

The most common failure of artist biopics is simple unworthiness — when a movie's subject is a bona fide icon of singular talent, it becomes all the more conspicuous that the film devoted to them has the originality of an overly reverent book report. Falling cleanly into this trap, Liesl Tommy's Respect is a dutiful but disappointingly shallow account of Aretha Franklin 's early artistic evolution. It isn't nearly as compelling a movie as Franklin was a singer, but while the film never fully captures her brilliance, it does at least effectively allude to it.

Those glimmers of greatness come, appropriately, in the music. The film rolls out all the tracks one can hope and expect to hear, presented both stripped-down in the studio and fabulously dressed-up onstage, and the chief pleasure of the movie is to see them so attractively presented in clear historical context. Franklin herself handpicked Jennifer Hudson to play her (and was involved in the production up until her death in 2018), and the Oscar winner, singing every song live, does as well as any person conceivably could to imitate the sound of the Queen of Soul's otherworldly instrument.

Conveying Aretha as a person turns out to be the more elusive task. Chronicling about a 20-year span, from her childhood to her landmark 1972 live recording of "Amazing Grace," Respect gives a wide if not a deep perspective on her career in the context of her faith, her activism, and her complicated family life. Stage and TV director Tommy makes her feature directorial debut on the film, working from a script by Tracey Scott Wilson, also earning her first feature credit as a screenwriter. When faced with something difficult — especially one significant, easily Googled trauma of Franklin's young life — Tommy and Wilson repeatedly rely on ellipsis; one scene later in the movie seems to explain the technique away by rather clumsily suggesting that Franklin herself coped by repressing her worst memories.

It's obvious that Tommy, Wilson, Hudson, and everyone else involved embarked upon this endeavor with an overabundance of respect — for lack of a better word — for the legendary singer. But glossing over her darkest personal moments and sanitizing some of the more complex or controversial aspects of her life (most egregiously in the portrayal of her father, the formidable C. L. Franklin, played here by Forest Whitaker ) weakens this version of Aretha, undermining what should be a celebration of her extraordinary creative legacy. Ultimately, Respect generally hits the notes it needs to, both musically and historically, but comes up short in what should be the most crucial ingredient — soul. C+

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Respect review: aretha franklin deserved better than a surface-level biopic.

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Aretha Franklin’s career, like her singing voice, is impressive and memorable. She was also a person beyond her fame, though, someone who struggled with mental health, a childhood marred by the grief of losing her mother, and sexual violence and abuse. Directed by Liesl Tommy from a screenplay by Tracey Scott Wilson, Respect aims to show off Franklin’s singing career at the expense of devaluing her as a person. The film, which has occasionally resplendent moments, loses its shine because it fails to treat Franklin’s life with the respect and depth it deserves.

The film begins with Aretha, Ree for short, being awakened by her father C.L. Franklin (Forest Whitaker), a well-known minister, to sing for those gathered at the house. Even at the age of ten, Aretha has a tremendous voice and stage presence, one that her father exploits in her youth. Respect then goes on to cover Aretha’s life from 1952 to the mid-1970s, through her attempts at making hits with Columbia Records before deciding to leave them to sign with Atlantic, where she worked with producer Jerry Wexler (Marc Maron) and was managed by her first husband, Ted White (Marlon Wayans, whose performance here is revelatory). Interspersed between Aretha’s goals to make hits and her rising stardom are moments from her life that are largely glossed over or treated like footnotes, including the death of her mother Barbara (Audra McDonald), her mental health, and Ted’s domestic abuse.

Related: Jennifer Hudson Sings Aretha Franklin’s Signature Song In Respect

Respect is all over the place. The film covers a little over two decades of Franklin’s life, yet it’s easy to walk away feeling as though nothing has been learned about the late singer that couldn’t have been gleaned from a Wikipedia entry. The script treats Franklin as more of an icon than a person and many of the aspects of her life, ones meant to establish how they shaped her later on, barely scratch the surface of who she is. There are scenes that reveal she is dealing with “the demon,” which could allude to the trauma of being raped at the age of 12 or her mental health, both of which are never really addressed. Respect wants to highlight all the glitz and glam at the height of her career, which more fully launched after several not-so-hit albums in Franklin’s early years, but fails to dig deeper into the singer’s life.

It’s always the struggle of a musical biopic and Respect is no different, uplifting Franklin’s discography rather than peeling back the layers of her life. The latter would have been more interesting considering viewers who are interested in seeing this film have likely heard all of the songs featured in it. A film such as this one, with the level of talent and potential it has, shouldn’t fall so flat; yet it is nearly soulless. Franklin’s activism is referenced but never shown, the man who raped her is never brought up by name or mentioned to anyone at any point, and the singer’s interiority is rarely, if ever, given any attention. There were so many aspects of her life that were worth focusing on and exploring further, including Franklin’s mental health and alcoholism, which were swept under the rug rather quickly, as though to avoid contending with such issues for the fear of tarnishing her image.

Respect manages to sidestep giving context to nearly everything, which makes the story feel a lot more hollow than it should be. The story is predicated on all of the men who are in control of Franklin’s life — from her father to her first husband — and Respect sets it up so that she has a “finding her voice” moment that doesn’t have any emotional resonance to it. The film flits from one fact to the next, more concerned with ensuring its chronology than in delving further into Franklin’s emotions and the various roles she played throughout her life. The biopic is a paper-thin story that doesn’t seem interested in figuring out who the singer was beyond her role as the Queen of Soul. To that end, Hudson shines when she takes to the stage, her performance a combination of Franklin’s mannerisms and her own. When she’s not onstage and is just being Ree, however, Hudson’s portrayal of the soul legend falters.

To be sure, fans of Aretha Franklin’s music will enjoy the performances and the intimate close-ups Tommy employs to capture them, as well as the many montages throughout the film that show Franklin’s rise to fame after years of struggle and failed albums. The costumes are outstanding and there are quite a few moments that bring out the potential Respect could have had. However, they may be disappointed with everything else the film has to offer because it refuses to examine the legendary singer’s life and emotions any closer than it has to.

Respect is playing in theaters as of August 13, 2021. The film is 145 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for mature thematic content, strong language including racial epithets, violence, suggestive material, and smoking.

Next: Respect Movie Trailer: Jennifer Hudson Is Soul Legend Aretha Franklin

A biography/music story about the life of popular singer Aretha Franklin, Respect, was released in 2021 and starred Jennifer Hudson as Franklin. The movie follows Franklin's career from a singer in her father’s church’s choir to her runaway success internationally. It gives a close intimate look into her, at times, difficult but eventually glamorous life.

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Jennifer hudson in aretha franklin biopic ‘respect’: film review.

Director Liesl Tommy traces the formative years during which the Queen of Soul emerged from the shadow of the controlling men in her life to take decisive ownership of her magnificent voice.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Aretha Franklin chose Jennifer Hudson to play her in a dramatic feature based on her life, and Hudson repays that act of faith by honoring the late singer’s towering legacy in Respect . A powerful account of self-actualization spanning 20 formative years, Liesl Tommy’s biopic is also an intimate gift of love, rich in complexity, spirituality, Black pride and feminist grit rooted not in didactic speeches but in authentic experience. The ageless music, of course, is the galvanizing force, but it’s the personal struggle behind it that makes the story so affecting.

A respected South African-American theater and TV director making a confident move into features, Tommy doesn’t escape the conventions of the bio-drama but she injects every scene with genuine feeling that elevates the material — as much as Hudson’s mighty pipes opened up in song. This is easily the star’s most persuasively committed screen performance since Dreamgirls , alive not just in the musical interludes but also in the frequently combative interactions with the people closest to Aretha. The entertaining MGM /UA release’s beating heart combined with Franklin’s multigenerational fan base should guarantee a receptive audience following its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival .

Full credits

Cast: Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Marc Maron, Tituss Burgess, Mary J. Blige, Skye Dakota Turner, Heather Headley, Kimberly Scott, Hailey Kilgore, Saycon Sengbloh, Leroy McClain, Albert Jones, Tate Donovan, Gilbert Glenn Brown Production companies: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures, Bron Creative, One Community, Chislehurst Entertainment, Harvey Mason Media, Gluckman Entertainment Distribution: United Artists Releasing Director: Liesl Tommy Screenwriter: Tracey Scott Wilson; story by Callie Khouri, Wilson Producers: Harvey Mason Jr., Scott Bernstein, Jonathan Glickman, Stacey Sher Executive producers: Jennifer Hudson, Liesl Tommy, Sue Baden-Powell, Aaron L. Gilbert, Jason Cloth Director of photography: Kramer Morganthau Production designer: Ina Mayhew Costume designer: Clint Ramos Music: Kris Bowers Editor: Avril Beukes Executive music producers: Stephen Bray, Jason Michael Webb Casting: Tiffany Little Canfield

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‘Respect’: Aretha’s Music Carries This Biopic

By K. Austin Collins

K. Austin Collins

R_20507_RC2(l-r.) Brenda Nicole Moorer stars as Brenda Franklin, Hailey Kilgore as Carolyn Franklin,Saycon Sengbloh as Erma Franklin and Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin inRESPECT A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures filmPhoto credit: Quantrell D. Colbert© 2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

I can’t say I envy the task of trying to bring Aretha Franklin — one of the most enduring artists of the 20th century (and beyond) , with a voice so singular that most other singers have been wise enough to spare her the flattery of genuine imitation — to the big screen. And for the Queen of Soul herself to have picked Jennifer Hudson to play the part must, for Hudson, have been a daunting honor, second only to being asked to sing a tribute to Franklin at the icon’s 2018 funeral.

The Queen: Aretha Franklin

Respect , in which Hudson stars, doesn’t — can’t — entirely do justice to such a vast talent, not least because Franklin’s life had an equally vast historical reach. This is a woman whose life and upbringing didn’t merely touch on the issues of her era; she was born of them, tied to them. Her father, C. L. Franklin, was a renowned pastor and civil rights leader whose home saw guests as estimable as the major Black recording artists of the moment, like Dinah Washington and Sam Cooke (or “Aunt” Dinah and “Uncle” Sam, as a young Aretha calls them in the movie), and whose civil rights activism would encourage a friendship with Martin Luther King Jr. himself, with whom Aretha — armed with that legendary voice — toured and fundraised on behalf of the movement.

Add to that the other particulars — the death of Franklin’s mother when she was 10; childhood sexual abuse that would, as some of the movie’s clumsier but well-meant moments imply, haunt her for the rest of her life; battles with alcoholism, domestic abuse, and the less-tragic (but no less stultifying) rule of her father — and what you have is, well, the stuff from which biopics are made. What other films of this kind don’t have, not even when they’re about legends as incomparable as the incomparable Ray Charles, is music that rips through the spirit quite as thoroughly as Aretha’s. It doesn’t necessarily go without saying that many of the best scenes in Respect are those focused on the queen’s music; the movie could easily have botched the job, in that regard. But director Liesl Tommy and writer Tracey Scott Wilson have — with the further input of Hudson, who as executive producer had the authority to make sure the “right songs” were in the film and that they were largely performed in full — given us a generous sampling of Franklin’s music, less in terms of the number of songs than in terms of the production’s attentive efforts to capture their power.

The 50 Greatest Aretha Franklin Songs

Though the movie’s already been accused of being a cookie-cutter biopic , the power of those songs is hardly mitigated by the film’s fairly straightforward approach. Respect chronicles Franklin’s life and career from her Detroit childhood, in which the young prodigy was dragged out of bed on Saturday nights to sing for her father’s famous guests, to her recording of the timeless 1972 gospel album Amazing Grace : Franklin’s career-bestselling work and, as the movie frames it, a return to the singer’s church roots that, after a low period in her life, nearly saved her. Musically, this means that the movie covers Franklin’s middling Columbia Records years and her megastar Atlantic years under Jerry Wexler, with a due nod to her first contract at Detroit’s J.V.B. Records. Personally, it means we get a story that is by and large anchored in Franklin’s struggles against the control of the men in her life, namely her first two managers: her father, played by Forest Whitaker, and her first husband, Ted White (Marlon Wayans).

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Under the thumb of her father, Franklin (who’s played, as a child, by Skye Dakota Turner) grows into a woman whose meek politeness is hard to square with the powerhouse we know the artist to be — which, it seems, is the point. After the death of her mother (played, too briefly, by Audra McDonald) and a pair of barely-teen pregnancies that the queen herself was not eager to discuss publicly (but which the film pointedly traces back to that childhood abuse), young Aretha practically goes silent. It’s a move that allows the film to begin tracing the arc of the demons that would later overcome her, from which she would, with Amazing Grace , save herself. But it also gives the power of Franklin’s voice a peculiar dramatic charge that races through the length of the film. Before her death, Franklin’s mother reminds her that her father does not own her voice; later, as he’s showing her off in the offices of Columbia Records’s John Hammond (Tate Donovan), it would appear that the Reverend Franklin hasn’t gotten this memo. It’s the way young Aretha is pulled out of her silence, not entirely of her own will, that’s striking. She doesn’t, in these early moments, sing because she wants to; she sings because she’s told to — and she happens to not only love it but also be a genius at it.

Funny thing, though, about that upbringing. More than one person in Respect tells that hoary joke about church folk — you know, that they’re the biggest freaks around — and if the Aretha of this movie doesn’t quite prove the idea true, her choice of a first husband, whom the singer Bettye LaVette once described as a “gentleman pimp,” evinces a parallel swerve toward rebellion; it’s a swerve that doesn’t get her nearly as far from her father as she, and also those of us learning this story from the movie, are initially led to think. The swirling camera that captures the couple’s erotically satisfying first kisses soon, as their relationship progresses, starts honing in on the close-ups and case-study views of a romance imperiled by a man’s violence and insecurity. This was violence that spilled out into the lobby of a hotel — and from there to the pages of Time magazine , violence that coincided with the first glimmering heights of Franklin’s career at Atlantic Records. Her storied partnership with Atlantic’s Jerry Wexler (Marc Maron), and through him the Muscle Shoals players whose chemistry with Franklin’s raw talent and style were immeasurable, is all nearly derailed, from the start, by Ted’s quick temper. As she gets bigger, so does his ego, his need to be in charge.

But she does, indeed, get bigger, and bolder, and the lack of self-assurance she displays early on — the forward, upfront star power that Hudson has to surgically subtract from her own persona, as if with a scalpel, in order to play a queen who doesn’t yet realize that she is one — eventually morphs, for a time, into the powerhouse personality we associate with her hits from the era, the Aretha who spelled out, letter by letter, what she demanded of the rest of us. Then comes the other Aretha — the monster with her demons, her distaste for rivals, her eventual hollowing out to the point of needing a reckoning. But this last phase is curtailed, usefully and not. By the time it arrives, so much has already happened — the movie’s runtime approaches two and half hours — that you can see why the story caps itself off triumphantly, with a hint of the lurking difficulties (and, by many accounts, difficult- ness ) that would come in the proceeding half-century.

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DVD & Streaming
Biography/History , Drama , Musical

Content Caution

In Theaters

August 13, 2021
Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin; Forest Whitaker as C. L. Franklin; Audra McDonald as Barbara Franklin; Saycon Sengbloh as Erma Franklin; Hailey Kilgore as Carolyn Franklin; Brenda Nicole Moorer as Brenda Franklin; Marlon Wayans as Ted White; Marc Maron as Jerry Wexler; Tituss Burgess as Reverend Dr. James Cleveland; Kimberly Scott as Mama Franklin; LeRoy McClain as Cecil Franklin; Tate Donovan as John Hammond; Albert Jones as Ken Cunningham; Mary J. Blige as Dinah Washington

Home Release Date

November 9, 2021
Liesl Tommy

Distributor

MGM; United Artists

Movie Review

Queen of Soul? She wasn’t even in the castle.

Oh, Aretha Franklin could sing, no question. Everyone from Dinah Washington to Duke Ellington knew that. From the time she was 10, Aretha—Ree to her friends and family—was belting out blues and gospel and jazz standards at her father’s Saturday-night parties. Then on Sunday mornings—when her father shook off his hangover and took to the pulpit of Detroit’s New Bethel Baptist Church—she’d sing again, lifting her voice to Jesus.

At the age of 18, Ree signed a contract with Columbia Records. From 1960 to 1966, she’d cut nine albums and performed countless times—with nary a hit to show for it. She could sing it all: jazz and pop, gospel and blues. Anything her daddy, C.L. Franklin, told her to sing, she did, and she’d sing it well.

And that , legend Dinah Washington suggested, was part of the problem. She was trying to make a name for herself with other people’s songs.

“Girl, you all over the place,” she told Ree. “What do you want to sing?”

That’s why she and husband Ted White drove to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, in 1967: To figure out what she wanted to sing.

Here, in the deep south, Blacks were still picking cotton, and the hardscrabble studio was filled with white musicians. White, racist musicians, Ted assumed. But Aretha sat down at the piano and began to play—and found that these white boys could play, too. And after recording one song—“I Never Loved a Man (The Way I love You)”—Ree knew this was it. This was what , this was how , she wanted to sing.

But then, disaster. One of the musicians made the mistake of putting his arm around Ree, and that was it for the violent Ted. When the studio’s owner Rick Hall came by the hotel to make peace, he and Ted made war instead. And Rick wasn’t the only one who Ted slugged in the aftermath of that recording session. Soon after, Ree headed back to her father’s Detroit home, sporting a black eye.

One day. One song. One full-blown disaster.

But that one song … it was a good song.

Not long after, Ree was walking down the sidewalk with the rest of the Franklin family when her son, Clarence, heard a familiar voice from a record-store speaker. It was his mom’s voice, belting “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)”.

Before that song was finished, it’d hit No. 1 on the R&B charts and No. 9 on Billboard’s Top 40.

Aretha Franklin had her first real hit. She’d entered the throne room and seen the crown. And it was just a couple of months before she would earn some serious respect.

Positive Elements

When Ree was but a child, she leaned on two important maternal figures to help her navigate her strange, difficult childhood.

Her mother was, of course, the first. Barbara Franklin had separated from father C.L. long ago, but she still saw her kids as often as she could. And when she and Ree got together, they’d sometimes sit down at the piano and “sing-talk,” where Ree could tell Barbara about her life. During one of those conversations, Barbara tells her daughter that she doesn’t always have to be a wind-up performer for C.L. on Saturdays and Sundays.

“Your Daddy doesn’t own your voice,” Barbara tells her. “Nobody does except for God.”

When Barbara dies before Ree’s 10 th birthday, her grandmother—Big Mama Franklin—steps into those large maternal shoes. She becomes Ree’s primary source of stability throughout the rest of her childhood and well into adulthood, serving as a voice of reason and assurance. And when Aretha has children of her own (at an incredibly early age), Big Mama often cares for them through Ree’s chaotic touring schedule and incredibly dark moods.

More complex is Aretha herself. Even as her songs become empowering anthems for the Civil Rights movement and women everywhere, she has to deal with some difficult and abusive men in her own life. She gives a voice to others, but it takes her a while to find her own voice and her own steel to push rightfully back on some of the abuses she experienced.

Even after she successfully demands the “respect” she so often sings about, Ree isn’t on her way to a happily-ever-after ending. Her dark moods push her into alcoholism, the movie tells us. But to her credit, she pulls herself away from the booze—with, as we’ll see, a little help from Jesus.

Spiritual Elements

Ree was raised, almost literally, in the Church. Father C.L. was a nationally recognized speaker and pastor, and by the time the movie starts he’s leading New Bethel—Detroit’s largest church. He talks about Jesus from the pulpit, of course, but he also talks about civil rights, comparing the plight of Black people in the U.S. to Daniel in the lion’s den. Ree, when she’s not singing, is shouting along with the rest of the congregation. “Praise God!” she shouts. “Preach, Daddy!”

But C.L.’s a hypocrite, too. His serial affairs and Saturday night parties are proof of that. He’s not alone. Ray Charles is quoted as saying that the best sex he ever had was while he was performing on the gospel circuit.

Still, it’s clear that faith is a big part of Ree’s upbringing, and the women in her life showcase that faith well. We mentioned that mother Barbara told Ree that only God owns her voice. Big Mama also undergirds the importance of faith. After Ree’s traumatized by an event we’ll cover in the next section, Mama reassures her that, whatever it is, God can help.

“I know you don’t want to tell me, but you can always tell the Lord,” Mama says. “He loves you no matter what.”

But while we see plenty of Christian content throughout the film, the final act crescendos into a truly Christian story arc. We see Ree at rock bottom. She’s not showing up to concerts. She’s shoved most everyone away. Her home is filled with empty alcohol bottles. And finally, she kneels and prays—and seems to be visited by her dead mother who leads her in the Lord’s Prayer. This leads to a spiritual turn for Ree and the recording of her gospel album Amazing Grace.

We see and hear plenty of other spiritual content as well, from the crosses that Aretha often wears around her neck to a mural of Jesus in church to the number 666 graffitied on a wall as Ree goes to meet her soon-to-be husband, and abuser, Ted White. Ree seems to suffer from some mental illness, which is often described as a “demon.”

Sexual & Romantic Content

When Ree’s just a child (10 years old, according to the movie), a teen attending one of C.L.’s parties enters Ree’s bedroom and asks if she wants him to be her boyfriend. “We’ll have fun,” he promises as he shuts the door behind them. The next morning, Ree is very quiet and won’t tell anyone what happened. Later on, we see young Ree very pregnant. (In real life, Aretha had given birth to two children by the time she was 14.)

Later, she meets and flirts with Ted, with the movie suggesting that the affair began in part as an act of rebellion against Ree’s controlling father. We see the two kiss several times, and Ree wakes up in Ted’s apartment, partly covered only in a blanket. After they’re married and head to Muscle Shoals, a trumpeter drapes his arm around Ree’s shoulders, sending Ted into a simmering rage. He suggests that all the band members would like to have violent sex with her, and it would serve her right if he left her in Alabama so they could have their way with her.

Ree and Ted kiss and make out elsewhere. But after the couple splits, Ree wastes no time in welcoming another lover into her bed. (She adjusts her clothes to augment her breasts after she invites her prospective lover over.) We see the two in bed, both apparently naked under the sheets, as they spoon. Ree kisses her new beau a couple of times, too, and it looks as if the man (Ken Cunningham) might want to perform oral sex on Ree as he gives her a foot rub. We see a number of couples get quite cozy during one of C.L.’s parties, including a same-sex couple. Ree grabs Ted’s rear as they walk into a building.

Violent Content

C.L. did everything he could to keep Ted away from Ree—including pointing a gun at him during a Sunday afternoon dinner. (Mama forces C.L. to put the gun away.)

Turns out C.L. was right to be worried. Ted is an abusive husband. Ree leaves him for a time after Ted gives her a black eye, but goes back when Ted promises to be better. Ted lunges at Aretha in a hotel elevator as the doors close. She later runs from him down the hallway. When the attack is made public in Time magazine and Ted thunders about suing the publication, Aretha reminds him that he did attack her. Ted grabs her face and neck and tells her that any other man would’ve killed her by now.

We see Ted and another man fight in a hotel room (though most of it is out of view of the camera). Ted throws a wad of bloodstained money on a table—apparently money a nightclub owed Ree for performing. (Aretha tells him that if he keeps beating up people, there won’t be any clubs in New York left where she can perform.) Aretha falls off a stage, much to the shock of onlookers. She smashes a guy in the nose with her elbow, drawing blood. Two people die during the movie, though we learn of their passing only over the phone.

Crude or Profane Language

About a dozen s-words are heard. We also hear several uses each of “a–,” “d–n” and “n—er,” along with one or two of “b–ch,” “b–tard” and “p-ssed.” God’s name is misused four times, while Jesus’ name is abused twice. In addition to the n-word (which is used pretty frequently here), Ted uses a number of disparaging terms toward whites, including “whitey” and “cracker.”

Drug & Alcohol Content

C.L. accuses an adult Ree of not walking with God anymore, because of her “drinking and whoring.” Aretha snaps back that she learned it all from C.L., and indeed C.L. seems a little inebriated even during their conversation.

Alcohol flows freely during C.L.’s parties, with plenty of glasses of whiskey and wine being held and quaffed. (People smoke, too, and marijuana might be part of the mix.) C.L. often has a glass of whiskey beside him during quiet moments at home. Ted also drinks to excess. He’s holding a bottle of what may be vodka in a hotel room as he steams over (what he interprets as) the disrespect that he and Aretha suffered at the studio. When the studio’s owner shows up with a flask in hand—and suggests that they share a drink to patch things up—it leads to a physical confrontation at least partly fueled by the liquor Ted had already consumed.

But the heaviest drinker here is likely Aretha herself. During her lowest period, we see her home strewn with tons of empty liquor bottles (as she works at emptying another), and she later admits that she doesn’t want to do anything but drink. When Aretha prays and, apparently, receives a visit from her dead mother, Barbara, Barbara pries a bottle of liquor out of her daughter’s hand and sets it aside. Later, Ree and her current lover, Ken, silently clean up the house, throwing away the empty bottles.

Other Noteworthy Elements

Racism is an inescapable part of Aretha Franklin’s story. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a family friend of the Franklins, and we occasionally hear about those tensions and tragedies. Ted is appalled by the number of Black people he sees still picking cotton near Muscle Shoals. And when all of Aretha’s studio musicians turn out to be white, Ted concludes that Black residents don’t have nearly the opportunities that whites do.

But the movie stresses that Ted’s prickly nature, particularly over issues of race, cause unnecessary problems. We see his hair-trigger temper on ready display, a temper that Aretha subtly tries to control.

Aretha—a strong advocate for Civil Rights—makes some pretty strong statements as well. She calls police “pigs” in one conversation. And at times she seems to advocate for a more aggressive confrontation of racism than the peaceful resistance advocated by both King and her father.

Marianne Faithful once said that Aretha Franklin’s voice was the “voice of God.” But the singer’s life was anything but divine.

As chronicled in Respect (and National Geographic’s mesmerizing miniseries Genius: Aretha from earlier this year), her life was difficult and often tragic—and sometimes made worse by her own decisions. If Franklin was famous for the staccato thunderbolt verse “R-E-S-P-E-C-T,” her life was filled with M-I-S-T-A-K-E-S.

In that light, Respect certainly has its bumpy spots that deserve several words of warning, especially for younger viewers. The fact that Franklin first got pregnant when she was 12 is an inescapable part of her life. The fact that we see her in bed with unmarried men is not , however, an inescapable decision in this movie. The film contains more problematic content than is, perhaps, strictly necessary. It’s a messy story, no doubt.

But it’s done in service to a fascinating, and ultimately inspiring, tale—one that director Liesl Tommy chose to end on an explicitly Christian note.

Late in the film, C.L. apologizes to Ree for doubting her faith. “You were with God,” he says. “You were always with God.”

But Ree knows better. She shakes her head and says, “God was with me .” Despite her demons, despite her choices, despite the fact that she sometimes seemed to run away from God, He was always there—loving, welcoming, forgiving. It just took Aretha some time to understand that.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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Common Sense Says
Parents Say 5 Reviews
Kids Say 9 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

By Amanda Dyer , based on child development research. How do we rate?

Serious themes, stellar songs in mature Franklin biopic.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 14+?

Frequent use of "nigga," as well as period use of "Negro." Occasional cursing in

Characters get into fistfights, are choked out, are threatened with guns. Freque

Some of Aretha's songs are sexual in nature. Very suggestive flirting, heavy mak

Adults and teens drink and smoke cigarettes frequently. Characters get into drun

Characters are shown wearing extravagant clothing and costumes and living in lar

Any Positive Content?

Themes of courage and perseverance. Victims of abuse find ability to stand up ag

Characters often act out of greed and jealousy. Aretha often surrenders control

Frequent use of "nigga," as well as period use of "Negro." Occasional cursing includes "s--t," "bulls--t," "a--hole," and "bitch."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Characters get into fistfights, are choked out, are threatened with guns. Frequent portrayal of domestic violence. Implied sexual assault on a 10-year-old girl, who's later shown with a pregnant belly.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Some of Aretha's songs are sexual in nature. Very suggestive flirting, heavy make-out scenes. Scenes with characters lying covered by sheets, implied to be naked after having sex.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults and teens drink and smoke cigarettes frequently. Characters get into drunken arguments and fistfights.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Characters are shown wearing extravagant clothing and costumes and living in large mansions.

Positive Messages

Themes of courage and perseverance. Victims of abuse find ability to stand up against their abusers. Strong theme of religion, specifically Christianity: Characters turn to God to be saved from their depression, anger, alcoholism. Shows importance of strong, supportive community in Black Southern Baptist culture. Characters support civil rights movement.

Positive Role Models

Characters often act out of greed and jealousy. Aretha often surrenders control to the people in her life. Her mother very early on tells Aretha the importance of owning her own voice rather than having someone else take ownership of it, though it takes a while for Aretha to understand what she means. Black characters are often seen standing up for their race; however, the characters are complex, so their advocacy isn't always shown in the best light.

Parents need to know that Respect is a biopic about the life and career of soul singer Aretha Franklin ( Jennifer Hudson ). Fans of both Franklin and Hudson will be eager to see the many updated versions of Aretha's hit songs, but this isn't a light story: It deals with mature topics and themes, including drinking (sometimes to excess, leading to fights) and domestic abuse. Ultimately, though, it shows the importance of perseverance and empowerment and regaining control. Expect frequent use of strong language, including "s--t" and "nigga." Characters are choked and threatened with guns, and it's implied that a 10-year-old child is sexually assaulted. There's also suggestive flirting, heavy make-out scenes, and characters shown under the covers after having sex. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (5)
Kids say (9)

Based on 5 parent reviews

A straightforward documentary with high production value

Needs discussions of patriarchy, misogyny and racism, what's the story.

Respect follows the life of Aretha Franklin ( Jennifer Hudson ), a young girl from Detroit who loves to sing. After a tragic accident takes her mother, Barbara Franklin ( Audra McDonald ), and a sexual assault leaves her pregnant, Aretha stays silent -- until her father, C.L. Franklin ( Forest Whitaker ), forces her to sing in church. After years of singing on the road with her father, who's a celebrated preacher in the civil rights movement, C.L. Franklin takes control of Aretha's career by becoming her manager. Aretha moves to New York to join Columbia Records, but she soon learns that just having a good voice might not be enough to make her a star. As Aretha searches for her signature sound, she must fight her father, her husband, Ted White ( Marlon Wayans ), and her debilitating, trauma-induced depression for control over her life and her voice.

Is It Any Good?

Hudson's performance as Aretha is electric, both on and off the stage. Although her voice isn't a perfect match for Aretha's, Hudson captures the singer's soulful spirit in each song featured in Respect. The film is very intimate with Aretha's emotional space. She's often seen being taken over by her "demons," which is how her depression and alcohol dependence are characterized by her family. But her story of recovery isn't typical, as the lines of good and evil are often blurred. The men in her life who supposedly save her from depression then make her suffer in other ways. Well-respected members of the community with good intentions are also greedy or take things to extremes. The film doesn't caricaturize any particular person in Aretha's life. Just as all of her sides are shown, so are everyone else's.

These complex concepts, as well as the prevalence of domestic abuse and child abuse, make the movie inappropriate for younger viewers. But Aretha's fans will enjoy the up-close-and-personal glimpse into her life. The film also serves as a learning experience, capturing some of the history of the civil rights movement as well as the globalization of soul music.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Aretha Franklin. Do you know any of her songs? Where and how did you first hear about her? What did you know about her before watching Respect ?

Franklin grows up during the civil rights movement. What was her role? How did she first become involved? How did her philosophies regarding the movement later differ from her father's?

How does the story show the importance of courage and perseverance ? Why are those important character strengths ?

How accurate do you think the movie is to what happened in real life? Why might filmmakers alter the facts in a movie that's based on a true story?

How did Franklin's depression show itself in the film? Do you know anyone suffering from depression or alcohol dependency? What resources are available for those who may be suffering?

Movie Details

In theaters : August 13, 2021
On DVD or streaming : December 12, 2023
Cast : Jennifer Hudson , Forest Whitaker , Audra McDonald
Director : Liesl Tommy
Inclusion Information : Female directors, Black directors, Female actors, Black actors
Studio : MGM
Genre : Drama
Topics : Activism , History , Music and Sing-Along
Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance
Run time : 145 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : mature thematic content, strong language including racial epithets, violence, suggestive material, and smoking
Award : NAACP Image Award - NAACP Image Award Nominee
Last updated : September 13, 2024

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Respect Review

22 Jan 2021

Aretha Franklin lived a long life, and never followed the simple rags-to-riches-to-drug-addiction-to-rebirth narrative of so many of her contemporaries. Franklin was born into relative comfort and driven by a complicated mix of ruthless ambition and filial piety rather than desperate poverty. Yet from this complexity, theatre director Leisl Tommy crafts a fairly basic, if largely effective, narrative, focusing on Franklin’s efforts first to find her own sound and then to overcome the demons that threaten to overwhelm her.

After childhood scenes with Skye Dakota Turner as a likeable and seriously talented young ‘Ree’, Jennifer Hudson takes over as Aretha for the decade-and-a-half where she went from church soloist to global superstar. The young singer earned her stripes singing at her father’s ( Forest Whitaker ) church and on tours around the country, but her secular career is a series of flops until she starts working with producer Jerry Wexler ( Marc Maron ) — despite the jealous distrust of her husband Ted ( Marlon Wayans ).

Franklin’s family was involved in this, and perhaps that explains some flattening of the messier bits of her life.

Lurking behind Franklin’s professional struggles are darker, personal secrets: the fact that she first became pregnant at 12, and that she struggled with depressive episodes. The film touches on her connection to Martin Luther King Jr (Gilbert Glenn Brown) and her considerable civil-rights campaigning, but doesn’t quite delve into how risky or how pioneering she was. Often the film’s focus is on the outward meekness and deeply inculcated reserve of a reverend’s daughter, so that we sometimes lose sight of the iron will underneath. It’s the formidable and prickly older Ms Franklin, the singer who in 2008 called out actual Beyoncé for seemingly deeming Tina Turner the queen of soul while introducing her at the Grammys, who would make a more radical subject — and unfortunately this film doesn’t go nearly that far.

Franklin’s family was involved in this, and perhaps that explains some flattening of the messier bits of her life. Still, it’s hard to entirely make sense of her devotion to and frustration with her charismatic father without knowing how they navigated her two early pregnancies. Hudson gives Franklin some edge — her facial reactions as her blustering husband grandstands are priceless — but it’s hard to fit much personality into a script that’s racing through world-changing events as well as half of Franklin’s back catalogue, and while Tommy mounts the story handsomely, she isn’t nearly as innovative as her subject, with handsomely staged but static shots and a largely linear approach. There’s dramatic meat left on the bone in her close, loving and fiercely dominant attitude to her sisters, and in her strained romances.

The real elephant in the room is that Jennifer Hudson is immensely talented, but no-one is Aretha Franklin. Hudson can belt out the big numbers but — as a mid-credit clip shows — Franklin herself had extraordinary richness and depth of tone that no-one can match (Cynthia Erivo, in a TV bio serial, came a little closer, but even she isn’t Aretha).  It’s a problem that the whole film shares: try as it might to touch on her struggles with family, alcohol, structural racism and sexism and groundbreaking musical innovation, it can’t capture the full breadth of Franklin’s extraordinary success. There’s only one Queen Of Soul, and we’re just lucky to have heard her.

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Johnny Oleksinski

‘respect’ review: jennifer hudson stars in bland aretha franklin film.

You’ve seen “Respect” before.

Slivers of this sleepy biopic about the life of singer Aretha Franklin can be found all over the place, from “Ray” to “ Jersey Boys .”

There are the early scenes of little “Re” wailing gospel music in church in 1952, just like those of “ Tina — The Tina Turner Musical ” on Broadway.

There’s the lightbulb moment in which the soon-to-be Queen of Soul discovers the hook to the hit 1967 song “Respect” while improvising around a piano with her sisters. It instantly brings to mind the “We Will Rock You” recording session in “ Bohemian Rhapsody ,” which I continue to hate despite your angry emails.

Running time: 145 minutes. Rated PG-13 (mature thematic content, strong language including racial epithets, violence, suggestive material, and smoking.) In theaters.

Franklin’s self-destructive alcoholism, fueled by the competing pressures of fame and family, was most recently seen as experienced by Judy Garland in “ Judy .”

Of course, you can’t ding a film for presenting facts about a person. All of these things happened to Franklin. But it’s a movie — not a Wikipedia post. What we crave is to see events interpreted creatively rather than a straightforward telling that feels exactly like what came before it. “ The United States vs. Billie Holiday ” was adequate, to be sure, but it wisely focused on Holiday’s struggles with the law and the controversial song “Strange Fruit.” That movie had a point of view.

“Respect’s” point of view is that Franklin was a legend. We already knew that. You can’t excitingly fill two and a half hours with the obvious.

Jennifer Hudson plays singer Aretha Franklin as she goes from little girl to superstar in "Respect."

However, it’s clear from the credits that nobody made this film to advance the art of cinema. This is the first movie by director Liesl Tommy, who is better known for her stage work such as “Eclipsed” on Broadway. “Respect” was made because Jennifer Hudson was available.

Hudson is at her best, surprisingly, during intimate dialogue scenes in her apartment with her abusive husband and manager Ted (Marlon Wayans). You fear for her and resent her inability to leave behind the controlling, untethered men in her life, such as her father (a scary Forest Whitaker). It’s moving as we watch her become empowered to take ownership of her career and her music. Franklin finally begins to raise her voice above a whisper somewhere beyond the recording booth.

Oddly enough for the big-voiced Hudson, those sections are more gripping than the music sequences.

Jennifer Hudson plays Aretha Franklin as she tours the world in "Respect."

When the title song arrives, sung in 1968 in front of a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden, we anticipate the same energy and passion the actress brought to “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from the movie “Dreamgirls.” That explosive number, which takes your breath away, won her an Oscar. The singing here, though, is more pretty than punchy. She doesn’t fully embody the fire inside Franklin until she sings “Amazing Grace” at the very end.

The supporting voices are sublime. Alongside Hudson are Audra McDonald, Tituss Burgess and Broadway’s Hailey Kilgore and Saycon Sengbloh. But the music, absent a believable 1960s sense of place or real concert atmosphere, doesn’t rouse so much as please, not unlike the familiar movie it’s a part of.

“Respect” settles for being respectable.

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‘Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds’ Review: Flights of Fantasy

Two sisters get transported to a new world and transformed into cats in this whimsical and thoughtful animated feature.

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In an animated image, a cat with an angry look holds the arm of another cat and talks to a bunch of yellow creatures.

By Maya Phillips

You can discover a lot about a fantasy world from its mode of entry: an English wardrobe, a disappearing train platform, a rabbit hole. The means to the phantasmagorical dream world of “Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds,” available on demand , is as playful and fanciful as the destination: You have to hopscotch there.

“Sirocco” begins with two sisters, Juliette and Carmen, getting dropped off at a family friend’s house for the weekend. This friend, Agnès, is the author of a popular fantasy book series about an ill-tempered wizard named Sirocco who summons devastating winds to destroy whole towns. When Agnès is distracted, a sentient toy — a testy little fellow with magical powers and a treasure trove of absurd lines — hopscotches the sisters into the kingdom of winds, where they’re transformed into cats. That’s not the end of their problems: Carmen’s at risk of getting married against her will and Juliette is offered as a pet to Selma, an elegant avian adventurer turned opera singer. With the help of Selma, the two sisters set out to find Sirocco to figure out a way to get back home.

Directed by Benoît Chieux, who wrote the screenplay with Alain Gagnol, “Sirocco” feels drawn from the same extended family of stories as those from the great Hayao Miyazaki — contemporary fairy tales that skip genre clichés and conventions to provide novel plots where the next step in the journey is always a mystery.

The intrigues of this film begin with the animation, which recalls such psychedelic classics as “Yellow Submarine” and “Son of the White Mare.” A town of amphibious residents live in gravity-defying skyscrapers made by Jenga-stacked geometric blocks. Selma travels in a flying opera house kept afloat by a hot-air balloon resembling a jellyfish. And in the sky, clouds churn and move like sentient gobs of putty. The various landscapes of this fantastical world are also marked with expressive coloring-book palettes: The cherry reds and watermelon pinks of a town’s architecture and cliffs are starkly contrasted with the honey and amber browns of desert sands.

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Respect movie review & film summary (2021)
The film covers the legendary singer's life from childhood to stardom, focusing on her musical achievements and personal struggles. Hudson delivers a powerful performance, but the script and direction are uneven and formulaic.
Respect (2021)
Respect is a film about the life and music of the Queen of Soul, starring Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin. See the trailer, critics and audience reviews, cast and crew, and more on Rotten Tomatoes.
'Respect' Review: Giving Aretha Franklin Her Propers
With their hooks and oceans of feeling, Franklin's songs worked on you and worked you over. They entered our bodies and souls, our cultural and personal DNA, becoming part of the soundtrack for ...
'Respect' Review: Aretha Franklin Biopic Gives The Queen Of Soul Her
The movie is also vague in its sense of Aretha as a political figure, apart from brief scenes in which we see her singing at the funeral of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and defending Angela ...
Respect
Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 13, 2021. Wendy Shreve Featuring Film. All in all, Respect finds its heart when Jennifer Hudson channels the riveting artistry of the Queen of Soul. The ...
Respect (2021)
A film about the life and career of the Queen of Soul, starring Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin. See the trailer, cast, reviews, awards, trivia and more on IMDb, the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content.
Respect
Respect is a musical biopic of the late soul singer Aretha Franklin, starring Jennifer Hudson. The film received mixed reviews from critics and positive feedback from users, who praised Hudson's performance and the songs.
'Respect' Review: Aretha Franklin Is Latest Genius to Get ...
August 8, 2021 9:00 pm. "Respect". MGM. When Liesl Tommy's Aretha Franklin biopic " Respect " opens, Aretha is still just a kid, hoping to please her dad (the formidable minister C.L ...
'Respect' review: Jennifer Hudson in enjoyable ode to Aretha
Review: 'Respect' is an enjoyable ode to Aretha Franklin, biopic clichés and all. Jennifer Hudson stars as Aretha Franklin in the movie "Respect.". The Times is committed to reviewing ...
Respect Movie Review: Jennifer Hudson Gives Queen of Soul Aretha
Parade Film critic Neil Pond reviews the new Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect, starring Jennifer Hudson as the Queen of Soul.
'Respect' movie review: The Aretha Franklin biopic leaves the Queen of
Review by Ann Hornaday. August 11, 2021 at 8:46 a.m. EDT ... As a movie, "Respect" resides in a clearly delineated pocket: This is cinematic portraiture at its most conventional, schematic ...
'Respect' review: Jennifer Hudson carries her showcase in an earnest
The movie begins with the 10-year-old Aretha being pulled out of bed by her father, pastor C.L. Franklin (Forest Whitaker), to entertain at a party, singling her out as a prodigy.
'Respect' review: Soulful Jennifer Hudson lifts Aretha Franklin biopic
Review: As Aretha Franklin, a soulful Jennifer Hudson keeps 'Respect' from hitting the wrong note. Give her the proper respect: Jennifer Hudson stuns with her performance singing and inhabiting ...
'Respect' Review: A Flattering Yet Flat Aretha Franklin
'Respect' Review: Jennifer Hudson Gives Flattering Yet Flat Aretha Franklin Portrait Reviewed at Wilshire Screening Room, Los Angeles, Aug. 4, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13.
Respect review: Jennifer Hudson stars in Aretha Franklin biopic
Jennifer Hudson stars as Aretha Franklin in 'Respect.'. Quantrell D. Colbert/MGM. Conveying Aretha as a person turns out to be the more elusive task. Chronicling about a 20-year span, from her ...
Respect Review: Aretha Franklin Deserved Better Than A Surface-Level Biopic
Respect Review: Aretha Franklin Deserved Better Than A Surface-Level Biopic. Aretha Franklin's career, like her singing voice, is impressive and memorable. She was also a person beyond her fame, though, someone who struggled with mental health, a childhood marred by the grief of losing her mother, and sexual violence and abuse. Directed by ...
Jennifer Hudson in Aretha Franklin Biopic 'Respect': Film Review
Rated PG-13, 2 hours 24 minutes. More tightly focused in its time frame than Nat Geo's recent anthology season Genius: Aretha, which starred Cynthia Erivo, Respect begins with her preteen years ...
Jennifer Hudson in 'Respect' Movie: Review of Aretha Franklin Biopic
The movie covers the Queen of Soul's life and career from her childhood to her gospel album, with Hudson singing most of her songs. It explores her struggles with men, music, and demons, but also ...
Respect
When Ree's just a child (10 years old, according to the movie), a teen attending one of C.L.'s parties enters Ree's bedroom and asks if she wants him to be her boyfriend. "We'll have fun," he promises as he shuts the door behind them. The next morning, Ree is very quiet and won't tell anyone what happened.
Respect Movie Review
Our review: Parents say (5 ): Kids say (9 ): Hudson's performance as Aretha is electric, both on and off the stage. Although her voice isn't a perfect match for Aretha's, Hudson captures the singer's soulful spirit in each song featured in Respect. The film is very intimate with Aretha's emotional space.
Respect Review
Release Date: 22 Jan 2021. Original Title: Respect. Aretha Franklin lived a long life, and never followed the simple rags-to-riches-to-drug-addiction-to-rebirth narrative of so many of her ...
'Respect' review: Jennifer Hudson is OK as Aretha Franklin
That movie had a point of view. "Respect's" point of view is that Franklin was a legend. We already knew that. You can't excitingly fill two and a half hours with the obvious. Jennifer ...
Respect (2021 American film)
Respect is a 2021 American biographical musical drama film starring Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul. The film covers her life from childhood to stardom, and features her hits such as "Respect", "Natural Woman", and "Amazing Grace".
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The movie's lack of a clearly defined villain might alienate some genre fans; so might the lack of an easily trackable metaphor. Others will find it a relief.
'Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds' Review: Flights of Fantasy
You can discover a lot about a fantasy world from its mode of entry: an English wardrobe, a disappearing train platform, a rabbit hole. The means to the phantasmagorical dream world of "Sirocco ...
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